In recent years, it has been desired in the market of a color photographic material that the processing time be shortened in order to provide an earlier time of delivery, and to simplify the laboratory operation. Each processing step can be generally shortened by raising the processing temperature or increasing the amount of the processing solution to be replenished. Further, increasing agitation or incorporation of various accelerators have been proposed.
In a method for processing a color photographic material having a reflective support, shorter processing steps are used. In such processing steps, the processing is generally completed by bleach-fixing and rinsing steps after a color development step.
However, it has been found that when a light-sensitive material is continuously processed in such a short processing step, a new problem arises. That is, when the light-sensitive material is subjected to a bleach-fixing process for 1 minute or less and to a rinsing process for 2 minutes or less, staining of the light-sensitive material thus processed may become worse. This phenomenon is remarkable particularly when the water used is saved to an extent that the amount of the rinsing water is significantly decreased. Such a stain can be visually perceived on a reflective support, and hence it can be a problem in practical use.
Such a stain can be attributed to oxidized components of the color-developing solution which has remained on the light-sensitive material even after rinsing, because it has been found that such a stain can be removed by re-rinsing the material, and such a stain is not produced in the case of using a sufficient rinsing time and amount, or in he case of renewing the color-developing solution.
In order to improve the stability of a color-developing solution, various preservatives or chelating agents have heretofore been proposed. Examples of such preservatives include aromatic polyhydroxy compounds as described in Japanese Patent Application (OPI) Nos. 49828/77, 160142/84 and 47038/81 (the term "OPI" as used herein refers to a "published unexamined Japanese patent application") and U.S. Pat. No. 3,746,544, hydroxycarbonyl compounds as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,615,503 and British Pat. No. 1,306,176, .alpha.-aminocarbonyl compounds as described in Japanese Patent Application (OPI) Nos. 143020/77 and 89425/78, alkanolamines as described in Japanese Patent Application (OPI) No. 3532/79, and metal salts as described in Japanese Patent Application (OPI) Nos. 44148/82 and 53749/82. And examples of such chelating agents include aminopolycarboxylic acids as described in Japanese Patent Publication Nos. 30496/73 and 30232/69, organic phosphonic acids as described in Japanese Patent Application (OPI) No. 97347/81, Japanese Patent Publication No. 39359/81 and West German Pat. No. 2,227,639, phosphonocarboxylic acids as described in Japanese Patent Application (OPI) Nos. 102726/77, 42730/78, 121127/79, 126241/80 and 65956/80, and compounds as described in Japanese Patent Application (OPI) Nos. 195845/83 and 203440/83 and Japanese Patent Publication No. 40900/78.
However, even if these compounds are added to a color-developing solution for a reflective light-sensitive material containing an ordinary benzyl alcohol, only some compounds can provide even a small effect. Thus, these compounds cannot fully avoid the production of a stain in a short processing time as described herein.